Chapter XIV: The Modern City (2)

The subsequent growth of the Institute has been remarkable. The old building on Washington Street was burned in 1890, and the work was continued in temporary quarters, chiefly in the building of the Young Men's Christian Association on Fulton Street. During the fourth year of active work after the reorganization 632 new members were recorded. The real estate belonging to the old Brooklyn Institute on Washington Street was sold to the trustees of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, and the old Institute was formally consolidated with the new Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. By an act of the Legislature the city was authorized to expend $300,000 in the erection of a Museum of Arts and Sciences on Prospect Hill, on a favorable site bounded by the Eastern Parkway, Washington Avenue, old President Street, and the Prospect Hill reservoir. In the year 1892, 940 new members were added, bringing the total up to 2622; the number of lectures and class exercises open to members and others, by the payment of a moderate fee, was 1397, as against 1134 the previous year; the number of concerts was increased from eight to fifteen; the average daily attendance on all the exercises of the Institute for the eight months of active work was 936, and the total attendance for the year, 190,900; the annual income was increased from $18,934.20 in the previous year to $31,641.58; special courses of lectures were delivered on American history from the time of Columbus to the beginning of this century, and a special course of addresses was given by college presidents on educational problems; Institute extension courses of lectures were given in the eastern section of the city; the school of political science was established, with four classes and ninety-six pupils; the Brooklyn art school was transferred to new and larger quarters in the Ovington Studio Building, and the number of pupils was increased from ninety-four to one hundred and twenty-eight; the department of architecture, acting through its advisory board, devised a scheme of competition for the best plan and design for the proposed Museum of Arts and Sciences, which was accepted by the board of trustees, and adopted by the Mayor and park commissioner, and the competition so arranged resulted in the award to the distinguished New York architects, McKim, Mead & White.

Foremost among those who have brought the Institute to its present influential position in the city have been Gen. John B. Woodward and Prof. Franklin W. Hooper. Professor Hooper, who had been elected curator of the Institute in 1889, became director of the new Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1891.

Mention has already been made of the establishment of Packer Institute and the Polytechnic Institute. The handsome gift of Mrs. Wm. S. Packer resulted in the opening of an academy for the education of young women. Since the time of the opening in 1854, under the presidency of Dr. Alonzo Crittenden, the Packer Collegiate Institute has enjoyed a peculiar prominence in the educational work of the city, and has won a high, if not a foremost, place among academies of the kind in the United States. Dr. Crittenden was succeeded in 1883 by Dr. Truman G. Backus, who had filled the professorship of English language and literature at Vassar, and whose brilliant attainments as a scholar and director have given new distinction to the institute.

A commanding position likewise has been gained by the Polytechnic Institute, whose establishment as an academy for young men resulted from the successful movement, aided by the gift of Mrs. Packer, for the establishment of a young women's school. A building on Livingston Street was completed and opened in 1855, Dr. John H. Raymond then being president of the faculty. Dr. Raymond was succeeded by Dr. David Henry Cochran, who had for ten years been principal of the State Normal School at Albany. Under a new charter, secured in 1890, the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute received "all the rights, powers, and dignities given by the law and the ordinances of the regents[46] to a college, including membership in the University of the State of New York." Dr. Henry Sanger Snow, an alumnus and a trustee of the institute, took a leading part in the negotiations which resulted in the significant change. The new building adjoining the old was first occupied in September, 1891.

The Adelphi Academy began its life in 1869 as a private school for both sexes. In 1886 Charles Pratt, then president of the board of trustees, made gifts to the Institute, by means of which it secured a new building that was opened in 1888. The since extended buildings now occupy a large part of the block bounded by Lafayette Avenue, St. James Place, Clifton Place, and Grand Avenue. The preparatory, academic, and collegiate departments are supplemented by a kindergarten and a physical-training school. Art education has always occupied an important place in the Adelphi Academy. Many well-known artists have graduated from the art school superintended by Prof. J. B. Whittaker. The principals of the Adelphi since its establishment have been John Lockwood, Homer B. Sprague, Stephen G. Taylor, Albert C. Perkins, John S. Crombie, and Charles H. Levermore.

It is to Charles Pratt, who took so important a part in bringing Adelphi Academy to its present position, that Brooklyn is indebted for the school which, more than any other educational institution within its borders, is distinctively original and of a national fame. Pratt Institute is frequently compared with Cooper Institute in New York. The comparison between the wise beneficence of Cooper and that of Pratt is, indeed, interestingly close; but the likeness between the two great schools is less perfect. Pratt Institute's remarkable characteristics are the result of a wise idea logically worked out. The buildings on Ryerson Street and Grand Avenue contain a unique combination of departments under a form of management that has proved to be eminently practical and progressive. Its educational plan illustrates manual and industrial training, as well as education in high-school and artistic branches. The methods of teaching domestic art, as well as political, economic, and natural science, have excited the admiration of students of education throughout the country. The large free library is one of many features of the institution.

The kindergarten idea in Brooklyn has had its leading exponent in Froebel Academy on Tompkins Square. Among other private educational institutions are St. John's College, the most prominent of the Roman Catholic schools, situated on Lewis Avenue, between Willoughby Avenue and Hart Street; St. Francis College, Bedford Academy, St. Joseph's Institute, Brooklyn Heights Seminary, Long Island Business College, Brooklyn Latin School, Bryant & Stratton's Business College, Miss Rounds's School for Girls, Kissick's Business College, and Browne's Business College.

In special education the Long Island College Hospital and the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy occupy an important place. The Long Island College Hospital and Training School for Nurses was chartered in 1858. Its history as a hospital and as a college has been notable. The graduates in 1893 numbered 60, bringing the total list of graduates nearly to 1500.

It frequently has been lamented that Brooklyn has no great free library, and the deficiency is one for which the city deserves a mark of discredit. But it is due to Brooklyn to observe that she is by no means without excellent opportunities for those who wish to read.

The Brooklyn Library, which succeeded the old Mercantile Library, is not free to the public, but the subscription rate is so low in comparison with the privileges that the institution is in many respects to be regarded as a great public library. The building on Montague Street was finished in 1868 at a cost of $227,000, and its beautiful Gothic front forms one of the genuine ornaments of the city.

The library contains nearly 200,000 volumes, admirably selected. The catalogue compiled by Stephen B. Noyes was of a character to bring honor alike to library and librarian. Upon the death of Mr. Noyes the management of the library came into the competent hands of W. A. Bardwell, who became librarian in 1888. The reading-rooms are furnished with 300 periodicals and newspapers. In the reference departments there were 75,000 readers in 1893, and in the reading-rooms 100,000 readers. The Brooklyn Library has, indeed, performed an immensely important service in the development of the city.

The Brooklyn Institute Free Library, formerly in the old Institute Building on Washington Street, and now at 502 Fulton Street, contains 16,000 well-selected volumes, and is efficiently managed. Pratt Institute Free Library is a notable instance of a great public service through a private agency. The library of 42,000 volumes includes 2000 German and 2000 French books. There are an Astral Branch at Franklin Avenue and Java Street, and delivery stations at Froebel Academy and 754 Driggs Avenue. Reading-room and library are free to the use of all residents of Brooklyn. The Long Island Free Library, at 571 Atlantic Avenue, is the result of a well-directed movement. There are but 15,000 volumes, but method of selection and distribution have assured the usefulness of the work. To this must be added the free public school libraries, and the substantial free library of the Union for Christian Work on Schermerhorn Street.

The free library of the Long Island Historical Society naturally occupies an important place. The reference department of 48,000 volumes includes the noteworthy publications of the society itself. The Law Library in the Court House contains 15,000 volumes, and there are 7000 volumes in the library of the Kings County Medical Society.

In addition to the libraries of the Young Men's and the Young Women's Christian associations,[47] there are over twenty-five special free reading-rooms throughout the city, most of them connected with churches.

The large number of churches, and the emphasis laid upon church interests, once gave to Brooklyn the title of the City of Churches. The proportion between the number of churches and the population no longer is so exceptional as to justify such a title, but church life in Brooklyn is, in many respects, of unique prominence. The greatest preacher the United States has produced, Henry Ward Beecher,[48] occupied the pulpit of Plymouth Church during a great formative period in the city's history. The Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D. D., pastor of the Congregational Church of the Pilgrims since 1846, the descendant of a distinguished family of preachers and orators, who has been called the "Chrysostom of Brooklyn," occupies a place among the most scholarly of American orators. The popularity of the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle since 1869, has been unexampled in the church history of the country. The thirty years' pastorate of the Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, constituted a notable force in the advancement of the community. The enlightened leadership of the Catholic Church by the Right Reverend John Loughlin, first bishop of Brooklyn, who was succeeded in 1892 by the Right Reverend Charles E. McDonnell, has been a matter for congratulation in the Catholic Church; and the Episcopal Church has been under no less obligation to the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, the Right Reverend A. N. Littlejohn, D. D. When Dr. Littlejohn was elected bishop in 1869, he was succeeded as rector of Holy Trinity Church by the Rev. Charles Henry Hall, D. D., who has been one of Brooklyn's strongest preachers.

St. James' Church, at Jay and Chapel streets, has been the cathedral church of the Catholic diocese for nearly half a century. The corner-stone of a great cathedral, to occupy the block bounded by Lafayette, Clermont, Greene, and Vanderbilt avenues, was laid in 1868, but only a part of the structure has been completed.

In 1893 the following were the numbers of churches of different denominations in Brooklyn: Baptist, 40; Congregational, 26; German Evangelical Association, 5; Jewish, 10; Lutheran, 27; Methodist Episcopal, 53; Primitive Methodist, 4; Methodist Free, 1; Methodist Protestant, 1; Presbyterian, 33; Roman Catholic, 63; Reformed Presbyterian, 1; United Presbyterian, 3; Protestant Episcopal, 45; Reformed Episcopal, 2; Dutch Reformed, 19; Unitarian, 4; Universalist, 5; miscellaneous, 23.

In the county towns the churches are numbered as follows: Baptist, 1; Hebrew, 1; Lutheran, 5; Methodist Episcopal, 9; Protestant Episcopal, 8; Methodist Protestant, 1; Reformed, 8; Roman Catholic, 12. In 1893 there were ten so-called Chinese Sunday-schools in Brooklyn, most of them connected with Protestant churches, and said to enroll 200 members.[49]

Religious societies in Brooklyn include a large list of prosperous and efficient bodies. Among these may be mentioned the Catholic Historical Society, the Union Missionary Training Institute, the Baptist Church Extension Society, Baptist Social Union, City Bible Society, Church Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, City Mission and Tract Society, Brooklyn Sunday School Union, Eastern District Sabbath School Association, Brooklyn Theosophical Society, Brotherhood of Christian Unity, Church Charity Foundation, Congregational Church Extension Society, Congregational Club, Foreign Sunday School Association, German Young Men's Christian Association, Greenpoint Sunday School Association, Greenpoint Young Men's Christian Association, Kings County Sunday School Association, Long Island Baptist Association, Order of Deaconesses of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Women's Auxiliary, Unitarian Club, Universalist Club, and the Young People's Baptist Union.

Brooklyn's churches occupy a particularly intimate relation with the intellectual and social life of the city. The circumstances under which the Rev. John W. Chadwick, D. D., became a leader in that highly significant intellectual movement, the Brooklyn Ethical Association, which has held meetings during a number of seasons at the Second Unitarian Church, and under which the Rev. John Coleman Adams, D. D., instituted the free historical lectures to public school children at All Souls Universalist Church, have been typical of a wholesome and progressive tendency in the community.

The work of the churches is supplemented by many and admirable organizations devoted to the relief of the weak, destitute, and incompetent. An important position is occupied by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. The Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, with central offices on Schermerhorn Street, has "the general purpose of promoting the welfare of the poor, the suffering, and the friendless in the city of Brooklyn. The specific objects and methods include: The promotion of cordial coöperation between benevolent societies, churches, and individuals; the maintenance of a body of friendly visitors to the poor; the encouragement of thrift, self-dependence, and industry; the provision of temporary employment and industrial instruction."

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul undertakes the general relief of the poor, without regard to color or creed, the work being done by a conference in each church (Catholic). The society is governed by a council composed of the president and vice-president of each conference.

A number of industrial agencies have been devised for the purpose of supplying temporary work for men and women. A bureau of relief for needy veterans of the Rebellion was established in Grand Army quarters at the City Hall. In recent years the number of free dispensaries throughout the city has greatly increased.

The Brooklyn Hospital, incorporated in 1845, received valuable aid from Augustus Graham, the founder of the Brooklyn Institute. The present hospital at Raymond Street and De Kalb Avenue has been in operation since 1852. St. Catherine's Hospital was established in 1869. The Memorial Hospital for women and children was founded in 1881; the Methodist Episcopal Hospital in the same year; St. Mary's Hospital in 1878; St. John's Hospital in 1871; the German Hospital in 1889; the Lutheran Hospital in 1881; the Brooklyn Hospital for Contagious Diseases in 1891; St. Peter's Hospital in 1864; the Brooklyn Home for Consumptives in 1864; the Eastern District Dispensary and Hospital in 1851; the Long Island Throat and Lung Hospital in 1889; the Brooklyn Throat Hospital in 1889; the Brooklyn Homoeopathic Hospital in 1852; the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital in 1868; the Kings County Hospital (a county institution) in 1837; the Brooklyn Maternity in 1870; the Faith Home for Incurables in 1878; the Inebriates' Home for Kings County in 1867.

For the protection and relief of children, the city has the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Children's Aid Society, the Industrial School Association, with six branches, the Nursery and Infants' Hospital, the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Orphan Asylum Society, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum Society, with three branches; the Eastern District Industrial School, the Sheltering Arms Nursery, St. Giles's Home, St. Vincent's Home for Boys, St. Christopher's Day Nursery, and St. Malachi's Home.

Brooklyn's right to the title of the City of Homes, rather than to that of the City of Churches, is excellently supported by a study of its social life; and in no phase is this peculiarity more apparent than in the club life of the city, which is distinctly in harmony with the general social life of the city. Several of the city clubs have "ladies' nights," or special receptions to which ladies are invited, and to some of the clubs ladies are admitted at certain hours of the day. "The Union League, with its Romanesque front of cinnamon brick and brownstone on a semi-square, is near the south end of Bedford Avenue. Its location is fine, and during the political campaigns it is an important centre. Medallions of Grant and Lincoln adorn the front, an eagle with outstretched wings holds up a 'bay,' and a carved bear stands on the roof, a symbol of the 'grip' that clubdom has on the modern man. The great hall in this house is one of the finest in the country. Across the city, a square below the Park plaza, stands the Montauk, a fine structure, ornate, in light tones of brick, and with a Greek frieze above the third story, which is unique in architectural decoration and is a replica of old bas-reliefs. Near by is the mammoth building of the Riding and Driving Club, the largest and best arranged structure of the kind in this country. The Hamilton, one of the older clubs, has a tall building on the corner of Clinton and Remsen streets, showing an expanse of red brick and brownstone. It has no distinctive architectural style. Architecturally, a most elaborate club-house is the Germania on Schermerhorn Street. Its style is a rich but modified Florentine. The material is pale brown brick. A feature of it is the great arched doorway. The Bush wick Democratic club-house on Bushwick Avenue is, architecturally, on the same lines, a reduced version in stone and terra cotta. The club has but recently taken possession of this new house. Out in Flatbush, on the avenue, is the Midwood, an old colonial manse, unaltered, with wide-spreading grounds, its façade marked by great white columns, such as are almost unknown elsewhere in the county of Kings to-day. The Hanover, on Bedford Avenue, is a fine modern double house, with extensions and remodelings. The Brooklyn and the Oxford clubs have recently enlarged their rather unpretentious buildings without special reference to architectural beauty. The Excelsior is a plain city house. The Lincoln has the appearance of several buildings joined together, but is ornate and striking. Out of town the Crescent and the Field and Marine clubs have charming country homes, turreted and porticoed, and surrounded with trees and lawns."[50]

In literary, artistic, musical, dramatic, and social clubs, the city has become populous. The Academy of Music had its origin in the success of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Society, the leading organization for the patronage of music, which was incorporated in 1857. It had been remarked that the audiences which patronized the concerts of the New York Philharmonic Society were, in a great part, made up of Brooklyn people. In 1856 or 1857 it occurred to the heads of several families, who were the best and most appreciative patrons of the New York society, that Brooklyn might and ought to have a Philharmonic Society of its own. The project was inaugurated, and was attended with success. The subscription list doubled the second season. There were, the second year, over seven hundred subscribers, and numerous patrons besides. The Athenæum was entirely inadequate for the purposes of the society. In 1858, the leading members of the Philharmonic Society, by circulars, called the attention of several leading citizens to the relative change that was going on between the two cities, and pointed to the success of their society as the best evidence that the time had come when a large lyric hall was demanded by the necessities of our city. About fifty gentlemen responded to this call, and a preliminary meeting was held at the Polytechnic Institute, in October, 1858.[51] A public meeting followed, a popular stock company was formed, and the Academy was incorporated in 1859. Land in Montague Street was bought for $41,000. The total expenditure reached $200,000. The Academy became and has remained the city's leading opera house, and largest place of public meeting. Most of the greatest musical artists, actors, and orators in the country have been heard under its roof.

Among the leading musical associations of the city are the Apollo Club, the Seidl Society, the Brooklyn Choral Society, the Arion Society, the Brooklyn Maennerchor, the Zoellner Maennerchor, the Amphion Musical Society, the Cæcilia Ladies' Vocal Society, the Concordia Maennerchor, the Euterpe Chorus and Orchestra, the Deutscher Liederkranz, the Saengerbund, and the Prospect Heights Choral Society. In recent years there has appeared a disposition to regard Brooklyn as a musical city. The increase in the number of musical societies and the patronage of opera and concert have unquestionably been great. Among the musical composers, resident in the city, who have made national reputations, Dudley Buck has been of first prominence.

The Brooklyn Art Association, a development of the Sketch Club, formed by Brooklyn artists in 1857, erected a handsome building adjoining the Academy of Music in 1872. The exhibitions held in the association galleries have been the chief displays of pictures seen within the city. In recent years the Brooklyn Art Club, a society composed of artists solely, has attained a large membership, and has exhibited annually in the Art Association galleries. The Art Association maintains a free art school. The leading society of art connoisseurs is the Rembrandt Club.

The Society of Old Brooklynites, the Franklin Literary Society, and the Bryant Literary Society have won prominence, and a position of influence has been assumed by the Brooklyn Woman's Club.

In private libraries and art collections Brooklyn has grown rich within the past twenty-five years. The development of certain valuable picture collections has induced the wish that the city had a great museum similar to the Metropolitan in New York, which might receive contributions by bequest. The advancement of the Brooklyn Institute promises to supply this need.

The newspapers of Brooklyn have acquired an increasingly influential position in the life of the city. We have seen how the "Eagle," the "Times," and the "Freie Presse" attained their established positions. The "Standard-Union" represents some interesting newspaper history. The "Union" was started in the midst of the war period, its first editor being Edward Cary. The paper was purchased in 1870 by Henry C. Bowen, and Gen. Stewart L. Woodford became editor-in-chief, and H. E. Bowen (son of Henry C.), the publisher. When General Woodford retired a few months later, he was succeeded by Theodore Tilton, whose skillful pen was in the service of the paper until January, 1872, when Henry C. Bowen assumed the editorship. In the following year the control of the paper passed to Benjamin F. Tracy, F. A. Schroeder, John F. Henry, and others associated with them, and Robert Burch, who afterward became managing editor of the "Eagle," took the post of editor-in-chief. Later the property came into the hands of Lorin Palmer, and in 1877 the purchase of the name and good-will of the Brooklyn "Argus," which had been established as a weekly in 1866 and as a daily in 1873, resulted in the change of title to "Union-Argus." When the Union Publishing Company was formed, the name "Argus" was dropped, and the paper was again known as the "Union" during the aggressive editorship of John Foord, formerly of the New York "Times," and afterward editor of "Harper's Weekly." In 1887 the "Standard," which had been established in 1884, was consolidated with the "Union," and John A. Hatton assumed the editorship of the "Standard-Union." Soon afterward William Berri became principal owner of the paper, and in 1890 Murat Halstead, long the master spirit of Ohio journalism, was called to the chair of editor-in-chief. The qualities which gave Halstead a national reputation while editor of the Cincinnati "Commercial Gazette" have not failed to make his pen a power in Brooklyn and throughout the State.

The "Citizen," established in 1886 by leading Democrats of the city, since has been a forceful and consistent organ of the local Democracy. The editorship of Andrew McLean has been one of eloquence and energy, uniting a consummate knowledge of Brooklyn with a rare sagacity in estimating men and affairs.

The establishment of "Brooklyn Life" by Frederick Mitchell Munroe and John Angus McKay was a felicitous stroke in Brooklyn journalism. "Life" has enjoyed a unique popularity as a weekly review of Brooklyn social, artistic, and literary affairs.

Brooklyn journalism has been quick to reflect the life and sentiment of the city. It has been energetic, original, and clean. The fact that only two of the newspapers, the "Eagle" and the "Citizen," publish Sunday editions, is one which of itself indicates the presence of a conservative element in the city. The establishment of Travelers' Bureaus by the "Eagle," under the direction of the assistant business manager, Herbert F. Gunnison, was a piece of characteristic enterprise.

The political complexion of Brooklyn and Kings County during the past two or three decades has become increasingly Democratic, with periodical Republican relapses. In the incumbency of the sheriff's office, for example, there has been an interesting alternation in parties since 1875. During the same period the two parties have been represented with approximate evenness in the Mayor's office. In leadership of the Democratic party Henry C. Murphy was succeeded by his energetic lieutenant, Hugh McLaughlin, who has retained the position at the head of the party since before the Rebellion. The period and completeness of this local leadership probably finds no parallel in American political history. No analogous situation has ever existed in the Republican party, which has never had a generally recognized leader, and whose successes at the polls have been those of a party or a public feeling in opposition to the dominant organized party. Both independent Democratic and independent Republican movements and leaderships have played an important part in the later activities of political life.

Of the commercial development of Brooklyn since 1876, it is to be said that it has advanced more remarkably on the water front than elsewhere. The traffic in grain, sugar, and oil, with the extensive cooperage and ship-building and repairing operations, constitutes an important element in any estimate of the city's prominence in manufactures.

In the value of products[52] the sugar industry stands first, the foundry and machine-shop interests coming second, and slaughtering and meat-packing third. Fourth and fifth positions are to be given respectively to chemical industries and the grinding of coffee and spices. Cordage and twine making has for a long time occupied a prominent place in Brooklyn. Other prominent industries are in boots and shoes, furnishing goods, and paper hangings. The National Meter Company plant in South Brooklyn is the largest in the world.

One of the most striking illustrations of Brooklyn's advancement in commercial affairs has been the increase in the number and importance of its financial institutions. The city's first banks were the Long Island Bank,[53] incorporated in 1824; the Brooklyn Savings Bank, incorporated in 1827; the Atlantic Bank, incorporated in 1836; the Bank of Williamsburgh, incorporated in 1839; the South Brooklyn Savings Bank, incorporated in 1850; and the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, incorporated in 1851. The first fire insurance company (the Brooklyn) was contemporaneous with the first bank. The Long Island Insurance Company was organized in 1833. In 1893 four insurance companies had their home offices in Brooklyn; there were twenty-three banks of deposit, fourteen savings banks, four safe deposit companies, seven trust companies, four title guarantee companies, and four savings institutions. In the same year there were about one hundred and ten strictly local securities.